417 Quotes by Orison Swett Marden

Learn From Yesterday, Live for Today, hope for tomorrow.

Golden opportunities are nothing to laziness, but industry makes the commonest chances golden.

He has missed the finest lesson of culture and experience who has not learned how to enjoy without owning.

Keep fear out of your child's mind, as you would keep poison out of his body; for fear is the deadliest of mental poisons.

A great many people never really discover themselves until ruin stares them in the face. They do not seem to know how to bring out their reserves until they are overtaken by an overwhelming disaster, or until the sight of their blighted prospects and of the wreck of their homes and happiness stirs them to the very center of their beings.... There is something in defeat which puts new determination into a man of mettle.

He who improves an opportunity sows a seed which will yield fruit in opportunity for himself and others.

Men are naturally lazy, and require some great stimulus to goad their flagging ambitions and enable them to overcome the inertia which comes from ease and the consciousness of inherited wealth. Whatever lessens in a young man the feeling that he must make his way in the world cripples his chance of success. Poverty has ever been the priceless spur that has goaded man up to his own loaf.

It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins. Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.

The inspiration of a single book has made preachers, poets, philosophers, authors, and statesmen. On the other hand, the demoralization of a single book has sometimes made infidels, profligates, and criminals.